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Bald heads and new balls

Greg James, self-confessed 'proud radio nerd', returns to the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ archives, using current stories and suggestions from listeners as a springboard into the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ's unmatched vaults.

Greg James, host of the Radio 1 Breakfast show and self-confessed 'proud radio nerd', uses his access-all-areas pass to the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Archives to track down audio gems, using listener requests and current stories as a springboard into the vast vaults of past programmes.

This week, a listener request starts a search for possible fakes in the archives: in the last series Greg played a scratchy recording, apparently from 1890, of the poet Tennyson reading his Charge of the Light Brigade - but was it the real thing or a cunningly constructed counterfeit, dating from the early 1960s? And who was the eccentric performance artist responsible for this trickery?

Summer is here, and with it comes the return of Wimbledon. Greg serves up some of tennis's pioneering women, from the French player who changed the game forever, to a more contemporary national treasure.

Greg also looks back at the disastrous opening night of Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ2, when a calamitous power cut stopped transmission of the launch and left a kangaroo stuck in a lift.

And to mark the tenth anniversary of Amy Winehouse's death, Greg takes a look back at the life of a once in a generation talent.

Producer Tim Bano

Available now

28 minutes

Last on

Mon 28 Jun 2021 23:00

Broadcasts

  • Sat 26 Jun 2021 10:30
  • Mon 28 Jun 2021 23:00

Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ producers branded Elton John 'dreary' in 1968

Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ producers branded Elton John 'dreary' in 1968

Amazing archive reveals how the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ misjudged the singer.